A new life
by Rolendale
Summary: Alternate Universe where Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape changed things for the better. But did they leave someone behind? They didn't think so, until someone comes back from their past and turn their new life upside down.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Alternate Universe where Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape changed things for the better. But did they leave someone behind? They didn't think so, until someone comes back from their past and turn their new life upside down.

Disclaimer: This magical world belongs to J.K. Rowling, I don't own anything.

Hello everyone, thank you if you are reading this. I don't know yet when I will be able to update this story but I will do my best. This is my first fanfiction so I am pretty excited, I hope you'll like it. Don't hesitate to review.

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Today was Sunday brunch with family and friends at Grimmauld Place, where everyone was enjoying the summer sun in the backyard. You could see kids chasing one another while laughing, the Weasley twins were showing people the new fireworks they had created for their shop, others were simply catching up. Of course, you could also see Severus Snape scowling in a corner, with James Potter teasing him and Regulus Black trying to smooth things over and getting his friend to come mingle a little. So all in all, a regular Sunday brunch.

'So Sirius, how is it going at the Ministry? Not too much work for the aurors?' asked Remus Lupin. Being the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, he didn't have much occasions to speak to his oldest friend on a regular basis.

'Yes, it's pretty calm these days. But it's good because we have more time for the trainees. Right Harry?' responded Sirius, turning to his godson with a big grin on his face.

'Right...' responded Harry, taking a swing of his butterbeer. It wasn't really that the training wasn't going great for him, because it was. It was more that training under his father and godfather made him the kind of guy that didn't earn his place. The other trainees were reminding him of that everyday, but Harry was too prideful to talk about it to his family. He knew he was good at what he was doing even without their help, so what was the point? _Only two more months_, he told himself.

'Oh, by the way' said Sirius to Harry and Draco. 'What was the name of that Head Girl of yours at Hogwarts?'

'Are you talking about Hermione Granger?' asked Remus, confused. Lucius Malfoy, who was seated not far from their group, frowned at Sirius' question.

'Yes! That's the one, I couldn't remember her name. I ran into her yesterday in Diagon Alley. It was really weird... How was she, back when you were in school? When I saw her at your graduation, she looked... stiff and kind of bookwormy.'

Draco snorted and Harry outright laughed.

'Now that's an understatement...' said Draco.

'Yeah... She was the worst' supplied Harry. 'Always her nose in a book, nothing else mattered.'

'Be nice' said Remus, frowning. 'She was the best student I ever taught.'

'Why do you ask?' asked Lucius to Sirius, speaking for the first time. Severus had joined him and was standing with his arms crossed over his chest and a deep frown on his face, listening to the conversation.

'She seemed... different yesterday, that's all.' Answered Sirius, taking a sip from his coffee.

'Different how, Black?' asked Severus in a clipped tone, wondering why the dog was choosing _now_ to finally stop talking.

'I don't know; she was more... dark I guess? Her hair was darker and longer and she had this look in her eyes when she saw me... Like she ran into a ghost or something. She was really fit though.' he finished, smirking.

Harry grimaced at that remark and Remus rolled his eyes.

'Oh! And she had those tattoos on her arms too! Flowers and animals I think.'

Now if there was one thing Draco prided himself with, it was that he was an observant man. Back when he was in Hogwarts, he was very popular - what with being the child of a war hero and all... One might think being rich and popular made him oblivious to those around him. But it didn't change the fact that Draco was used to consider his surroundings, sometimes to the point of obsession. He knew the name of each student of each house, he noticed when one of them was having a sick day, even those he had never spoken to and those who tried to stay under the radar. He knew who was dating who, he knew who was cheating on whom, he even knew when a teacher was having a bad day from a glance at the Head table during breakfast. Of course, that particular talent didn't include his godfather because, well, _everyone_ knew Professor Snape was having a bad day every day.

Anyway, Draco just _knew_ things. That's why, when he saw his father and Severus exchange a look after Sirius' words, he had a feeling something was off. Lucius was watching his eyes slightly widened and his mouth opened. That should have been a sign on its own, because Draco learned from an early age that _Malfoys never gape_. And then there was Severus, his jaw was so clenched it was a wonder it hadn't broken yet.

'Why do you ask anyway? Don't you hate her or something?' added Sirius.

_Another understatement_, thought Draco. Everyone at school knew Professor Snape never had a sunny disposition, but when it came to Hermione Granger... He shuddered just thinking about it. To put it simply, Severus made her life hell. Draco remembered a time when Granger walked into class, the professor just looked at her and gave her two weeks worth of detentions with Filch, just because he 'couldn't stand the sight of her this early in the morning'. He loved his godfather, really he did... But he never understood where this hate was coming from, considering the girl always tried to keep her head down when in proximity of the dark wizard.

Now, the dark wizard in question was staring into space with a frown even deeper than before. He mumbled 'or something...' under his breath before being yanked by Lucius and dragged to the house.

Sirius just shrugged and jumped to another subject with his friend and godson. Draco couldn't let it go this easily. He decided to follow the two men discreetly. When Harry saw his friend standing up, he frowned at him. The blond shook his head and mouthed '_later_' before entering the house.

He heard them settle into the library upstairs before they threw some silencing charms. Draco sighed, before pulling an Extendable Ear from his pocket - they always come in handy - and crouching down to listen.

He only heard pacing at first, and wondered which one of them was making a hole into the floor.

It was his godfather who spoke for the first time: 'do you think it was her?'

'I don't know Severus!' exclaimed Lucius.

'But did you hear what he said? About the tattoos?'

'Of course I heard! I was there too! But how could it be real?'

'I don't know Lucius... I don't know.'

Draco's eyebrows rose a little. Never had he ever heard his godfather sound so defeated before. And neither had he ever heard his father sound so panicked, for that matter.

'Severus...' Lucius said. 'I mean, really, I could it be possible? You know as much as I do that-'

'Please don't say it...' pleaded Severus, sounding desperate now.

Lucius sighed before continuing: 'we saw her die Severus... Please... Let's just not go into that again.'

Draco, who was still eavesdropping on the other side of the door would deny it if anyone saw him, but right now, he _gaped_. Big time.


	2. Chapter 2

Later that night, Draco was pacing the length of his living room.

He lived with Harry in a beautiful flat in Muggle London since two years ago when they graduated. They had known each other for as long as Draco could remember, and their friendship only grew when they were sorted together into Slytherin at Hogwarts. Their life there was filled with mischief and laughter, their close friends always joining them when they were up to no good.

Well, there was this particular incident in sixth year when laughter was definitely _not_ on the agenda. It seemed everyone suffered from it. The atmosphere was morose for a few weeks. It was like every student's happy life depended on this group of friends and couldn't function without it. Teachers even started to get worried. _Pathetic, really_ thought Draco, rolling his eyes. _Well, it was all Harry's fault_.

His long-time friend had just barged into their dorm one day and said: 'Draco, I need to tell you something.'

Malfoy just asked the others to vacate the room and waited for Harry to start talking. He was _not_ ready for what he was about to hear.

'I love you, Draco. I've been in love with you for a few years now. I know you like girls. I just... I didn't want to tell you at first because I didn't want to lose our friendship. I thought it was enough. It's not anymore. I'm sorry. I'm not asking you to do anything about it... I don't even know what I'm looking for by telling you. I watch you take another witch every night to our dorm and it's killing me. Just... I don't know...' Harry finished with a sigh, sounding defeated.

Draco was seated on his bed, facing his oldest friend, trying to process what he was hearing. His legendary sense of observation had just taken a major beating. _Harry's in love with me? When did this happen? How did I not _see_?_ He didn't know what to say or what to do. So, of course, he did something stupid.

He stood up and left the room without a word.

Draco winced as he remembered this and admitted to himself that maybe, _maybe_, he was also a little bit at fault for the frosty atmosphere.

Everyone knew something was off, but no one asked. Harry acted like nothing happened, but the others could see his smiles were strained. As for Draco, he thought a lot about what his friend had said. He also started to notice some things about Harry he had never noticed before. Like the way his green eyes lit up when he saw the blond enter the common room. Or even how he looked getting out of the shower, with just a towel hanging on his hips before getting dressed for the day. And _why does he look so good when he runs his hand in his hair_? To put it simply, Draco was very confused. He wasn't into men, right? _Right? _He didn't know anymore.

Until one day a few weeks later, after much more thinking, he barged into the Great Hall during dinner. The thought that he might be doing something stupid again crossed his mind, but he dismissed it and marched to the Slytherin table where his friends were eating quietly. He then grabbed Harry by the collar and snogged him right there, in front of the entire school.

After a moment of shock, Harry started to return the kiss. Draco had never felt anything like this, and he had kissed a lot of witches before. When they pulled apart, Harry smirked at him while the blond grinned from ear to ear.

After many shocked stares, hanging jaws and claps on the shoulder from their friends - '_Finally'_ they said - Professor Snape gave them detention for public display of affection and everything went back to normal. Draco never regretted his move and he and Harry had been happy together ever since.

Tonight, Harry had gone out for a drink with the Weasley twins and some other people, but Draco had decided to stay at the flat in order to think about what he had heard from Lucius and Severus back at Grimmauld Place.

Since he was a little boy, Draco had always heard people talk about how his father and his godfather had been part of the Oder of the Phoenix, a secret society created by Albus Dumbledore in order to defeat the darkest wizard of their time, Lord Voldemort. Alastor Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mr and Mrs Weasley, the Potters, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Minerva McGonagall and others were also part of the Order then.

'These were dark times', they would say. From what Draco understood, people were disappearing, others were murdered for not being pureblood, some were even killed just for the sake of it. No one was safe. The Order at the time was having more of a defensive style, trying to protect wizards who where openly targeted and basically doing some damage control. But it changed around the end of the year 1979. Why at this moment, Draco didn't know. What he did know was that it was the moment the Order of the Phoenix started going on the offensive to deal with things. Ambushing Death Eaters, destroying Horcruxes - not that the general public knew about that, after all, it wouldn't be good for bad wizards to get any ideas.

It went on until the Final Battle, on January 1st 1981. Lord Voldemort, tired of being taken for a fool and none the wiser of the state of his Horcruxes - all destroyed by then - barged into Hogwarts with his followers, only to find every members of the Order of the Phoenix waiting for him.

The Battle was deadly. A lot of wizards and witches fell that day, from both sides. It was particularly hard for Mr Weasley to lose his wife, with six young children waiting for them to come home. They learned later that she was a month pregnant at the time, which was almost the final blow for poor Arthur. Everyone had been present to help him back on track. Moody, Ted Tonks and others also died as heroes that day.

But the most spectacular death was probably the one of none other than Albus Dumbledore himself. At one point during the fight, the old man had engaged Tom Riddle in a duel, resulting in the death of both wizards. That particular duel was still talked about to this day, feeding author's imagination for their stories about the war.

The Order had stayed to clean up after the Battle, rebuilding the castle and rounding up the Death Eaters still standing, putting them in Azkaban. Lucius and Severus had been the most efficient for this last part.

Draco had always considered his father a hero. That's why what he heard that afternoon bothered him so much. '_We saw her die, Severus..._' what did that even mean?

The blond had never been close to Hermione Granger, she had always been too much of a goody two shoes for him. But he had never wished her harm. If his father and Severus had seen her die at some point between the end of their seventh year - when Draco last saw her - and now, why didn't they say anything to the aurors? Or to anyone else? Were they involved in something requiring them to keep silent? They sure sounded panicked in the library...

_Am I going insane? _thought Draco. _How could I even consider this of my own family? There has to be another explanation_.

He groaned, massaging his temples, sensing the beginning of a headache.

'Everything okay?' he heard behind him. Turning towards the sound of the voice, he saw Harry leaning against the wall, his arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

'Fine. Just a headache.' responded Draco.

Harry approached him before responding, the smirk never leaving his lips: 'Oh really? Maybe I can help you get read of it...'

Draco felt his own smirk grow on his face. 'Maybe you can...'

So that's exactly what his handsome boyfriend did for the rest of the night. Several times.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello! Thank you for the reviews and the people following my first story... It's really motivating. I will update when I can. **

**Disclaimer : I still don't own this magical world, everything belongs to J.K. Rowling.**

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It has been a week now since Hermione woke up in this strange world. Almost two weeks since she almost died.

_Flashback_

She, Lucius and Severus had decided to 'pull a Hermione' as Lucius would call it. They had gathered information from a shady witch in Knockturn Alley, who may or may not have been a prostitute; and they had developed a plan to ambush a few Death Eaters. Their plan was perfect really, it had been designed by Hermione herself and they had used different versions of it at least a dozen times before to trap and try to lower the number of Voldemort's followers in their world.

But this time, they'd been double-crossed. Damn whore.

At least two dozens of Death Eaters were waiting for them when they arrived. They might have been shocked to see their two former brothers alongside Hermione Granger, muggleborn friend of Harry Potter, but Hermione couldn't be sure. All she registered was a gasp - her own, as it turned out - and Severus muttering "_shit_" before all hell broke loose.

Dark spells were flying everywhere. Their own and theirs. It had been a while since she had any misconceptions about the fact that she'd have to use dark spells in order to survive a dark war. She had been trained by her friends and she was good at it. Not that she ever let herself be swept into the darkness beckoning her. She always maintained control. She was good at that too.

At that moment, her control of the situation had slipped through her fingers like water. She could see in the corner of her eyes Severus wearing black from head to toe, fighting his way like the Prince he was through every opponent coming his way. She could also see Lucius' blond hair flying around his face from the wind of the spells he was throwing, it gave him some kind of halo of light. Both wizards were like two contrasted angels fighting the same enemy. If the situation wasn't so critical, Hermione would have stopped fighting just to enjoy the beautiful sight they were forming.

But the situation _was _critical, and Hermione fought tooth and nail to protect her friends and herself to the best of her ability. There were too many of them for only three people, even if two of those people were some of the best duelists in the country, and the third was considered 'the brightest witch of her age'.

A blond head other than her friend's caught Hermione's attention. That's when she saw _her_ coming from who knew where and approach Lucius from somewhere he couldn't see.

Hermione didn't think, she just reacted.

Narcissa fired a nonverbal curse, black flames shooting out of her wand and heading towards her husband.

But the muggleborn girl was already in front of Lucius, and took the curse right in her chest.

Time seemed to slow down. Hermione screamed as a burning feeling spread from her chest to every part of her body, before settling into her brain. She was on fire; she was sure of it.

Severus promptly caused the wall behind the Death Eaters to fall on them as a distraction, before taking a hold of his friends' arms and apparating away.

They landed in the middle of the Forest of Dean with a loud crack; but the noise was swallowed by Hermione's screams of pain.

"P... Please! Please make it stop!" she cried after she felt like she didn't have the energy to scream anymore. She couldn't think straight. All she could focus on was the horrible pain inside her head.

Lucius quickly threw protecting wards around them, making sure to add strong silencing charms.

"What curse hit her?" Severus asked, dangerously close to panicking. He was trying to calm Hermione down, to use every spell he knew to lessen the pain she was feeling, but nothing seemed to work. She was still moaning in pain and thrashing around. Perspiration began to coat her skin, and she appeared to have trouble breathing.

"I don't know; it was a nonverbal! Some black flames, but I've never seen something like that before..." Lucius answered, kneeling on the other side of Hermione, casting diagnostic spells over her body. "I don't understand" he added, watching the results, "the diagnostic spells say there isn't anything wrong but her body is shutting down..."

"What do you mean, her body is shutting down?" Severus asked, raising his head to read the results himself. "Fuck!" As last resort, he pulled some healing and pain potions out of his robes, pouring them down Hermione's throat.

But nothing seemed to work. It was too late. She had stopped thrashing around, and they could see her breathing slowing.

Lucius and Severus exchanged a long look over her body. Everything had happened so fast. Only half an hour ago they were standing in the alley with all those Death Eaters, and now...They knew they had tried everything they could. They could only watch the spells keeping track of her condition grow darker and darker as her organs died one after the other...

Until her chest stopped moving entirely.

A sob caught in Severus' throat before he could control himself. He got up and pressed a hand to his chest, where he could feel like it had been stabbed. He thought at this moment that being bitten by Nagini was far less painful than this sensation. _How could this have happened? _

As for Lucius, he was still kneeling beside her body, his forehead pressed against her shoulder. He was whispering under his breath: "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." over and over again.

Severus took a deep breath. He would grieve later. When he had fixed this. He put a hand on his blond friend's shoulder. "We need to leave. We'll go to Spinner's End."

"I know." Lucius answered, putting himself upright. "What... What do we do with her body?"

Severus swallowed hard before answering: "we leave her here. She always liked the Forest of Dean. She used to come here with her parents when she was little... We put wards around her to repel animals and other beings."

"So we don't bury her?" Lucius asked, frowning.

"No." Severus answered. "We just... Put flowers around her. And then we leave. We need to change things, Lucius..."

"What exactly do you mean by changing things?"

"I mean that we _change things_..." Severus said, throwing his friend a meaningful look.

"Oh..." Lucius said, realising what Severus meant. He looked one last time towards Hermione's body, before nodding. He pulled his wand, waving it to create a beautiful bed of flowers. He then put Hermione delicately on it. He closed her eyes, and kissed her forehead before getting up, completely determined this time.

Severus knelt down and kissed her forehead himself. He got on his feet and put strong wards around the place.

"Let's go" Lucius said.

They both apparated into the night.

"WAAAAAAIT!" yelled Hermione. Or she tried to yell. But no sound came out of her mouth, and all she could hear was the crack from her friend's apparition. She was alone in the forest.

_What the hell happened?_ she thought.

She remembered blacking out from the pain at one point. She woke up a few minutes before to hear Lucius and Severus talking about what to do with her body. The pain was mostly gone, even if she could feel a massive headache, it was nothing compared to what she had suffered before. She had tried to talk, explaining she wasn't dead. But she couldn't move, blink or even breath... It was like being petrified all over again.

_Was she petrified? What was that horrible curse Narcissa used?_

Thus began a series of internal questions Hermione couldn't answer but couldn't stop asking herself. She was still 'petrified' and she still had a headache several hours later...

_End of Flashback_

Hermione had stayed in that strange motionless state for a few days. Or so she thought. At first, she had found it sweet that Lucius and Severus had been so delicate with her body. Several days later, after not being able to tell the time of the day or night, she was internally cursing Lucius for closing her eyes like they were in some stupid drama movie.

She hadn't realised at first that she could move again, being so used to be in one position. When she had felt her finger move to scratch a hitch on her belly, she had snapped her eyes open, only to be blinded by the strong light of the day.

_What happened? Did Lucius and Severus succeeded in lifting the curse? Maybe they killed the crazy bitch! Are they coming back? _

After several moments of pacing - it was so good to use her legs again -, Hermione had realised two things. One: she was _so _hungry she was sure she could it a troll, and she was thirsty too. Two: her friends weren't coming back for the moment, and she needed to eat.

She had transfigured a hooded cloak to wear and apparated in a small alley near Diagon Alley. It was risky, but she wanted to snatch a Daily Prophet to see which day it was and to read who had died in the days she was 'out'.

She ate and drank so much she thought her belly would explode, but it had been worth it. It was the meal that had rendered her careless, she guessed, because she had then run into a hard body, causing her hood to fall off her face.

_Sirius Black_ had steadied her by catching her arm and had stared at her for a moment before smirking.

Hermione was so shocked that she just apparated back to the Forest of Dean, forgetting about the Daily Prophet.

It had been three days ago.

She had spent those three days hiding in the forest, scared out of her mind to run into a ghost again. Maybe she _was_ dead after all.

_What a brave Gryffindor you make_... she thought to herself.

But Hermione was sick of hiding. If she was really dead, then so be it, but she needed to move to find out. Hiding like a coward wouldn't answer her questions.

She stopped pacing and took a deep breath. She had to stop hiding and go find answers in this world where she had noticed the sun was shining more than she had seen it in years... In this world potentially composed of ghosts of her past. And good food. It could be worse after all.

She took her wand in her hand and apparated away.


End file.
